The War Photographer
by Luny Ravings of THE Mad Hatter
Summary: [InuKag] Kagome was a war photographer, capturing pictures of people dying and suffering. It was her job, her pain. But what if that person she had to capture in her camera was someone she had loved and lost three years ago?
1. Prologue

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Disclaimer: Inuyasha does **not** belong to me. Though I really wish it does, cause that means that I can be filthy rich.

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_Summary: Kagome was a war photographer for during World War II, travelling around the world, capturing pictures of people dying and suffering. Walking away from an injured person after taking a picture was hard. It was her job, her pain. But what if that person she had to walk away from was someone she had loved and lost three years ago?_

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In his darkroom he is finally alone

With spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.

The only light is red and softly glows,

As though this were a church and he

A priest preparing to intone a Mass.

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

He has a job to do. Solutions in slop trays

Beneath his hands which did not tremble then

Though seem to now. Rural England. Home again

To ordinary pain which simple weather can dispeal,

To fields which don't explode beneath the feet

Of running children in a nightmare heat.

Something is happening. A stranger's features

Faintly start to twist before his eyes,

A half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries

If this man's wife, how he sought approval

Without words to do what someone must

And how the blood stained into foreign dust.

A hundred agonies in black-and-white

From which his editor will pick out five or six

For Sunday's supplement. The reader's eyeballs prick

With tears beween the bath and pre-lunch beers.

From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where

he earns his living and they do not care.

Carol Anne Duffy

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**The War Photographer**

**Inuyasha x Kagome**

**by: Artemis the Black Witch**

**

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Prologue**

The air was filled with smoke and the smell of gunpowder. More gun shots and bombs could be heard a few miles away. The sky was grim and the clouds were grey, promising a day of hard rain for tomorrow, as if foreshadowing even more deaths. Not far away, commanders could be heard yelling 'Fire!' to his subrogates, and almost simultaneously, millions of shots could be heard being fired.

Kagome stood up from her last picture and looked around her as the dead body was taken away.

Death was everywhere. The smell of blood was so overwhelming that she almost wanted to vomit on the spot.

But she won't.

She couldn't even if she wanted to.

She was a war photographer.

She was used to this.

Used to the blood, the deaths, the killings.

The minute she stepped into the war-made graveyard, she has abandoned all feelings. This was her job. She has turned into a cold being snapping pictures of people dying. Suffering. Screaming for help. She was no different from the people who had injured them. Taking their pictures. Pictures of them dying, in pain. She didn't even help them.

She hated her job, the fact that she could do nothing to help them, the fact that they were lying there suffering and all she did was take their pictures.

She remembered their faces, every single one of them. How she tried to sought approval from grieving families by looking into their eyes, hoping that they would understand.

And the pictures, what happened to them? They got put in newspapers for the people at home to look at. To look at those deaths of the soldiers that got injured or even died for protecting their countries. And what did they do? They pick up their coffee cups and tsk-ed at the suffering, while doing nothing themselves.

But then she didn't have the authority to say that. After all, she didn't do anything herself.

Damn them all. Damn everything.

They didn't understand a thing.

"Kagome! We need you over here!"

Snapping out of her daze she ran over to her assistant, Hojo. He was standing next to a child. He was trying hard to hold his tears in as he stared at the child. Vaguely she thought that he was not suited for the job, he was too soft. She didn't want him to be tormented by those images for the rest of his life. 24. He was too young. Then again, she was only 24 herself.

As she reached the child, her grip on her camera tightened. The child was thin. The bones were sticking out and he was covered in grim. The body was curled up in a ball and there was a deep gash on his thigh. He looked about 10. Too young. Much too young. When she stood next to him, she realised that he was dead.

As if she was on auto-mode, she lifted her camera and snapped the picture. Then she turned away for her next shot.

"Ka-Kagome."

She paused without turning to acknowledge Hojo. No words came put of her mouth.

"Your face." Was his simple answer to her unvoiced question.

She lifted a hand to her face to see what he was talking about. Moisture covered her hand. Surprised, she took her hand away from her face and stared at it in wonder.

She curled her hand into a fist and swiped the back of her hand on her face to wipe the rest of the moisture away.

What do you know? She did have feelings after all.

She took a deep breath and walked away, motioning for him to follow her.

Her day has ended as she looked up at the darkening sky.

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A/N: Another attempt at an Inuyasha fic, but I think this is the first time I post one up. This one wouldn't be updated quickly, cause I'm doing another fic right now that is for Naruto and that's my first priorty. And another problem is that my school actually blocks which is a pain in the arse. So I would only update in my holidays which is not a lot, but I think I will finish at least two more chapters before the next time I get to go on Oh yeah, do please tell me if there's anything I need to improve. I wuld really appreciate it. Also another thing, I know it'sshort, I'm trying to extend the lengths for each cahpters, so bear with me.

Oh and also, Kagome will be meeting Inuyasha in next chapter.


	2. Moment

Disclaimer: No. I don't own it.

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**Inuyasha x Kagome**

**By: Artemis the Black Witch**

The darkroom is locked from the inside.

It always was whenever she was in there.

This was her time. Her only time to reflect.

Kagome blinked to adjust to the darkness of the room. Her eyes were blank, showing nothing. It was almost as if she was dead inside. Slowly, automatically, professionally, she pulled out the film from the cassette as she had done over and over again.

Carefully, her hands worked to develop the pictures while her eyes remained painfully dull. _Dead._ She was, in a sense, dead in the inside.

She felt nothing but emptiness in her heart.

There was nothing she could do. Nothing.

She lifted the photographs out of the chemicals and ran water over them.

Dully, as she had done many times before, she hung them up on the line. One by one.

Then she saw.

She saw each one of those images.

People who were abandoned.

People who were injured, people dying.

People who were _dead_.

She stood there, as she had done many times before. She stared at them.

Then she crumbled.

Darkness enveloped her as she crouched down on the floor and tears came out. The dam had burst. She started shaking and sobbing, and she could not stop. Tears were leaking out of her eyes as she sat against the wall, knees drawn up, her head cradled between her hands.

In her mind, she remembered each and every one of those faces and the scenes. She remembered how she tried to seek approval from the woman wordlessly, whose husband was dead and lying there, blood still oozing out of his wound sluggishly.

She remembered the child. The child, who was still too young to be caught up in a war like this. The child whose future, no matter how it might have been, cruelly ripped out by those damnable governments.

Then she remembered those women who were so brutally murdered. Their clothes ripped off and bleeding everywhere. They couldn't even die with dignity.

Kagome shuddered and her whole body shook with the force of her emotions. She gasped as if she was in pain and her fists clenched.

A knock sounded at the door and Hojo's muffled voice could be heard from the other side, "Kagome?"

Kagome looked up.

"Sesshoumaru wants to speak to you."

She closed her eyes.

"I'll be there in a minute."

She opened them.

The barriers were back into place.

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The room was big and obviously richly furnished. It smelt of wood as most of the furniture apart from the sofa at the side of the room was made of different kinds of wood. A huge desk was seen as soon as you entered the office and an armchair behind it.

It was fitting for someone like Sesshoumaru who was sitting behind that particular desk. He was the boss of the newspaper they worked in.

Kagome stepped in and sat down in front of the desk.

"Kagome." He acknowledged. At the sight of her red, puffy eyes, he frowned

Although he didn't show it, he did care for her, as much as someone like him could care. She was like a sister that he never had and he looked out for her. However, that didn't mean that he was the reason that she was working here. No, Kagome climbed up to her current position by herself.

Kagome looked up and stared at him with her dull eyes.

Sesshoumaru looked at her.

When had she started being like this? She was once lively and filled with life. Her eyes were full of laugher, joy and love for life instead of this emptiness. It was as if she were a lifeless porcelain doll that could break any moment.

Then he remembered.

They started dying on that day. Bit by bit, slowly and painfully, he remembered the way she started painfully withdrawing herself and locking her emotions up in a door that was at the back of her heart. The key out of reach from everyone.

But he knew. He knew that she was strong. If this was the only way that she could deal with her loss and her pain, then he would let her. He did not want her to end up like those women who were broken and damaged beyond repair.

If this was the only way to keep her strong, then he would let her.

Nevertheless, his eyes narrowed at the sight in front of him. He admired her for her strength, but sometimes, he wondered how it would have ended if it haven't happened.

This would be the first and last time he would try to bring that girl everyone had loved back.

After all, as they say, 'When you lose someone, if he/she came back to you, then you are meant to be together.'

If it didn't work out, at least she could sort out her feelings and finally move on.

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Kagome stared out the window as scenes of trees and fields passed by.

"_Kagome, yo__ur job in the front line is done. I don't need anymore pictures over here. Tomorrow, I want you and Hojo to go to the air force base in the south and give me pictures from there. You'll stay there until the war ends. They are starting to think of compromises and negotiations in the Congress. I suspect that it will end in about 3 months."_

She frowned. Why would Sesshoumaru send her instead of Kenji? He was nearer to the camp than her and there are still some pictures that needed to be sorted out and her article needed to be finished. Instead, her only reply was, _"Take it with you and finish it there."_

Whatever, at least the place wouldn't be as bad as the front line or the villages.

"Higurashi-san, we're there."

She blinked and turned to the opened car door. Fighting jets were lined up in rows at different stations, people were running around, planes were landing or taking flight and pilots were either going into war, coming back or practising.

Kagome took a deep breath and stepped out of the car into her new working place.

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"Kagome!" a familiar feminine voice yelled over the corridor of the hospital. She paused in midstep and turned around to identify the speaker.

She gasped, surprise and joy crossed her face to replace the dull expression she had on for the past two years.

"Sango? Miroku?" she ran and flung herself into the arms of her best friend. "Why are you here? I thought you were in the north doing research on the army!"

Sango laughed joyously, "Yes, but my work is finished there, so Sesshoumaru sent us here last week to do research on the air force!"

Kagome smiled and gave Miroku a hug as well, but not before making sure that he would keep his hands to himself.

"How will you stay here then?" Kagome asked them enthusiastically, she hadn't felt this alive and happy for so long, but it didn't matter now, for her friends were here. She could hold on strong.

Sango smiled. "Until the end of the war. Oh and, Kagome, have you seen anyone you know here yet?"

Kagome looked at her, puzzled. "No, I've just arrived, is there someone I know here?"

"Well, um, never mind then." Sango smiled uncertainly before giving Miroku a sideway glance.

The doors of the hospital opened suddenly and doctors, nurses and surgeons ran in carrying people in a rush. They were bleeding and struggling.

Kagome's eyes started to dull. The dam was shutting down.

Hojo suddenly appeared beside her with her camera in his hands.

Sango turned to Kagome, "Kag-" she stopped and stared at her lifeless eyes and froze. When had her friend become like this?

Wordlessly, Kagome turned on the camera and adjusted the lens with the air of a professional, unaffected by the scene around her.

A pair of surgeons rushed past her with a man in their arms. Although he was struggling, he was slipping into unconsciousness and he was bleeding badly.

Kagome walked over to his bed with her camera and held it up to snap the picture.

Then she froze.

There was something very familiar about him. His hair, his expression, his actions, his _face_.

Her eyes widened in shock, pupils diluting.

Her hand fell along with the camera.

Then he froze the moment he saw her.

Their mouths moved to shape each other's names.

Her breath hitched.

He started struggling as if someone was trying to pull him away as he slipped into unconsciousness, but his eyes remained stuck on her face desperately as if he were trying the confirm that she was real and not a hallucination.

It was as if time had stopped as they stared at each other in shock. But then his eyes started to slide shut and his body slacked and sank into the bed.

Then the wheels of time started churning again, but still, she remained there, frozen on her spot, repeating that fateful day, the scene she had witnessed even in her nightmares, in her mind over and over again as surgeons and doctors swarmed in to treat him and she still stood there rooted in that exact same place, her feet refused to budge, as if gravity was pulling her down.

Tears formed in her eyes and slid down her pale cheeks to gather at her chin, each drop splashed on to the dirty hospital floor mingling with the blood that was there.

"Inuyasha," she breathed.

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A/N: Right. This is the second chapter. Exams coming. They are a pain in the ass. The third chapter is half way thorugh, but I'm a bit stuck. ah well, I'm sure I have it sorted by then. The next chapter will be out in about 4 weeks max I think. yeah. hopefully. the school blocks me from uploading any stories. so you guys might have to wait...not that it's that good...haha...anyways. i'm happy to hear any suggestions or anything from u guys. Thank you! 


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